BRUCEWOOD MAC
The Story Up to Now
Part 3: From Kidd to Lopez
The photo session the band originally had planned went on, but with some tension between Kidd and the rest of the members. It eventually calmed down, however, as Kidd discovered via conversation that Lopez was willing to learn off of him in order to improve the antelope’s own style of play. O’Hare had long been gone at this point, as he was told that he was no longer associated with the band. Bruce ultimately revealed to the public later on that once O’Hare first started to perform with the band, the rest of the members already had enough of his shenanigans, and wanted him gone soon. Around when Lopez was introduced, Kidd’s emotions up to that point were already boiling, and took it all out when O’Hare acted up during the photo shoot. As Kidd was part-leader of the band at the time, Bruce agreed that Kidd stepped up, even though it may have seemed a bit excessive. It definitely left a bad taste in everyone’s mouths.
Moving on from the incident, Kidd continued to be involved with Brucewood Mac, albeit more limited than usual. For instance, if there was a song on the band’s next album,
Brucewood Two, where he had no writing involvement, he let Lopez do all guitar duties for the song. He would only play guitar on songs he mostly wrote himself. This practice would begin Kidd’s seclusion from the rest of the band when it came to studio material. Of course, performing live, Kidd would be on stage all day, as he didn’t want the fans to speculate that he was becoming disinterested in performing with the band. Behind the scenes, however, this was unfortunately starting to become the case.
During the
Brucewood Two recording sessions - the first to feature Lopez as a member, and Katt playing keyboards alongside her usual singing duties - Kidd was getting ready to start recording the lead guitar track on their first song,
Villager of Mine, when he heard in the next booth over Lopez struggling to tune a new guitar he just bought. Kidd couldn’t focus on what he needed to do, so he went on over and had a friendly chat with Lopez.
“No, no, no,” Kidd blurted out, “this song is not in F-minor. You’re doing it wrong. It needs to be in F-major.”
“Ah, I’m sorry,” uttered Lopez, “I just bought this awesome new guitar, but I can’t seem to get it to sound the way I want.”
Kidd pointed to one of the tuning knobs on Lopez’s guitar. “If you turn this knob just slightly, you’ll get the correct key.” Lopez proceeded to turn the knob accordingly, and his guitar now sounded the way he wanted it.
“Wow, you’re awesome, thanks!” Lopez exclaimed.
Kidd shrugged. “Oh, it’s nothing. I once had a Tanukicaster myself, and the knobs are difficult to get right. You gotta play with it a few times before you get the sound you want.”
“Hmm, I didn’t know that. I’ve played with a base model Stringmaster, and I wore that thing out quick when I played for
Hunter and Prey. I heard that Tanukicasters were built to last, and bought one off the NookStop during a sale. Say, whatever happened to your Tanukicaster?”
Kidd looked down as if he felt guilty of something. “Someone stole it during one of our gigs.” he told, “I left the stage real quick during an intermission to take a water break, and the next thing you know, 'twas gone. Good thing I kept a backup Stringmaster 3000 with me, otherwise, the fans wouldn’t be happy without their music.”
After finishing his sentence, Kidd got up and proceeded back to his own booth. He stopped at the doorway to say one more thing.
“A missing guitar is the least of my worries. To be honest, I don’t know how long I got left in this band. Me and Bruce are starting to have some serious problems.”
Puzzled, Lopez simply watched Kidd leave the booth, and went back to playing his guitar.
During the sessions, K.K. would come into the studio to produce the
Brucewood Two album after hearing about one of his former session musicians joining a successful band. This wasn’t something K.K. would normally do. However, after doing the math, it would benefit record sales of both his own albums as well as Brucewood Mac’s, so he agreed to become involved with the band in the studio. Gaia Records was starting to become the hit place to be with musicians for this reason. When
Brucewood Two was released, the album went triple-gold in its first week alone, and topped the album charts for a month afterward. Sales were so successful, that the gold records were hung right in Gaia’s visitor lobby for all to see for a short while.
The band members went to the studio one afternoon to admire their success. Bruce’s dream of having something gold-related was finally achieved. It wasn’t straight-up gold bars, but it was something regardless. The members were about to go to the lounge to brainstorm ideas of what to write next for their next album, when someone suddenly came forward with a loud, shocking confession:
“I’m done.”
Everyone turned around to see Kidd by himself, standing alone in the hallway. He did not look happy. “Lopez is your guy now. I’ve taught him everything he needs to know.”
Bruce slowly walked over and glared at Kidd’s eyes. “You’re done? You’re calling it quits?”
“I am. I’m leaving this band and going on my own. I’ve already signed my own solo deal with Gaia.”
Most of the other members stood there in shock. Katt became worried, Bruce started to act serious, Roscoe didn’t know what to say, and Lopez was still distracted by the gold records on the wall.
Katt and Roscoe never saw this coming.
“But Kidd,” Katt began to say, “You’re everything to us. Please don’t go!”
Kidd was hesitant to say anything at first. It was pretty clear that he had some feelings for the cat. “I won’t leave the studio,” winking at Katt, “but I’m leaving this band.” This proceeded to dry up some tears that Katt was beginning to form in her eyes.
The other members, especially Bruce, did not feel as much remorse. Lopez kept quiet the entire time for fear that it’ll lead to something bad. Roscoe wanted to say a few things, but was too shocked to properly form a sentence in his mind. Both came off as unintentionally disrespectful as a result. It was all up to Bruce to prevent Kidd from leaving the band, even though the chances were very slim.
“Okay, Kidd,” exclaimed Bruce, “You can leave, but I want to confirm something.”
Kidd looked on, and watched as Bruce proceeded to pull out some form of document from his inner jacket pocket, as well as a pen. It had a legal seal on it, which meant serious business.
“I will offer you part royalties from the sales of our latest album, if you agree to stay with us. Otherwise, you can walk on outta here with nothing. All ya gotta do is sign.”
Kidd simply looked at the document with an unamused look on his face, then turned away, saying nothing.
“Alright, your choice. See you whenever.”
A generous offer turned down.
As Kidd walked out of the building and into his car, Lopez came running after him. All of a sudden, Lopez wanted to convince Kidd to stay with the band as well.
“It’s too late to change my mind now.”
“Kidd!” yelled Lopez, “You’ve taught me so much! I want to know more from you! Give me another chance, please!”
Kidd turned around monotonously. “I’m afraid that can’t be arranged. Me and Bruce can’t agree on anything, and you’re the middle deer here. If you’re involved with him, I’m not involved.”
“But Kidd,” Lopez pointed out, “He wanted you to earn a pretty share of bells from the sales of our album! How could you possibly turn this opportunity down?”
“Lopez, all I can simply say is that my time with you guys is up. I have lots of good ideas, but if Bruce wants to steal my spotlight, so be it. I’ve already signed my solo Gaia contract, so it’s too late now.”
“But Kidd, just wait a second!”
At this point, Kidd closed the car door and sped out of the parking lot. Lopez watched as Kidd drove off onto the street and out of view. Katt came out of the building to find out what had happened. She didn’t look very happy.
“Lopez, don’t worry about it,” stated Katt, who stood next to Lopez and watched the vehicle disappear into the night, “Kidd only cared about himself. Forget about him!”
“I don’t understand,” muttered Lopez, “He’s been so helpful to me. Why would he act like this?”
“Well, Kidd’s been wanting his own fame for a long time. Bruce was sensing it ever since O’Hare’s dumb actions.”
Lopez turned to face Katt, shrugging. “Well, he taught me well. I suppose I’m your main guy now.”
“Darn straight,” Katt said with a smile, “Listen, I may have liked Kidd before this whole thing, but not anymore. If you ever need anything, I’ve got your back, or my name’s not Katt!”
Both of them shared a smile, and headed back inside to meet up with Bruce and Roscoe, who were likely chatting about what to do next. Bruce glanced over at Lopez, and suddenly got excited.
“Hey, my dude!” shouted Bruce, “You’re my lead guitar man now. Hopefully you’re ready to make it big!”
Lopez didn’t want to grin due to Kidd’s sudden departure, but couldn’t help himself. He came over to Bruce, put his arm around him, and told the others, “I am, Bruce, I am. I won’t let you guys down.” Katt and Roscoe clapped in unison. “From now on, we’ll be the power duo!”
“But what about us?” Roscoe said jokingly, pointing to himself and Katt.
Lopez laughed, “You two are the star-studded supporting cast.”
What a fantastic artist.
Everything turned out well for the Kidd-less Brucewood Mac. Even though they were now short a guitarist, the lack of Kidd had little effect on the band’s success.
Since Kidd’s departure, the band released two more top-rated albums,
Antelopes Are Hard to Find and
Pretending, and are currently in the works of setting up their first world tour. Lopez only got better with time, and also took over several vocal duties whenever a song felt fit for his voice over Katt’s. Even Bruce - who originally decided not to sing at all on his band’s albums - was convinced to try his hand out on singing lead on a song,
Hard Decisions. He would later admit that he didn’t sound too bad, but mentioned that he would rather focus on playing consistent bass lines when performing live and leave most of the vocal work to Katt and Lopez.
During the recording sessions for
Antelopes Are Hard to Find, Lopez called up his best friend, Kyle, to come over and witness what he had been doing lately. When Kyle showed up, Bruce instantly recognized him, and wanted to know if Kyle wanted to contribute in any way.
Although Kyle was mainly a drummer, he saw that Roscoe actually took care of his drum kits. Rather than splitting drumming duties, Kyle let Roscoe do his thing, and instead played other instruments as a guest musician on the album. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to make the songs on the album pop out more. Due to legal reasons, Kyle couldn’t officially join the band right away, but Bruce still wanted him to become more involved in some way. Kyle was ultimately hired to become the band’s stage manager, after seeing what he could do for
Hunter and Prey’s music videos. When the original contract featuring Kidd and O’Hare expires, Kyle would then be given the decision to join Brucewood Mac if he wanted to.
Another job well done.
It’s been somewhat of a strange path leading to who the band is today, even though the public never really caught a glimpse at the band’s more personal history. After earning enough bells from record sales, Lopez decided to live the good life and move to Wahu, subsequently catching up with an old music friend of his. He would also invite Kyle, bringing the best friends even closer. Bruce moved into a brand-new upscale condo in the city, with a dedicated space for music production for his own works, which may see a release someday as a tie-in solo album. Katt’s popularity skyrocketed, but has never let it go to her head. She is still willing to try her hand at new things, and right now, is currently learning how to play acoustic guitar via Lopez. Roscoe made a lot more friends, and nobody judges him for his unfriendly appearance anymore. In fact, a lot of Brucewood Mac fans find the horse so cool, that t-shirts with just Roscoe’s face tend to sell out at concerts. There was even a gig where everyone in the audience wore said shirt. The band officially called it “Roscoe Appreciation Night”, and the horse was incredibly happy to be a part of the experience.
As for Kidd and O’Hare, they’ve been doing their own separate things. Kidd released his first solo album, and has actually gained some new fans - both from
Mac and elsewhere - who wanted to know what he’s all about. His material strayed a bit away from his former band's style, but was enough to be unique in its own right. O’Hare went to a B-label, released some unsuccessful singles, and fell into obscurity, just like Lopez's former band. His whereabouts are currently unknown, but it’s safe to assume that he’s no longer in the music business.
As the band frequently says in their concerts, “Thanks for your patronage, and I hope we didn’t disappoint. See you next time.”